Theoria:
definitions:
1) Contemplation of abstract principles
2) A mode of perception (word means "to see") different from the ordinary modes
3) In Plato, the means whereby one recovers the knowledge one knew before birth
4) In Plotinus, a method of abstraction whereby one can return to the source (the One) through negation of all superlative attributes (goodness, beauty, etc.)
significance:
1) The best way to "see" the world is intellectual and abstract
2) It is possible to transcend the material world and establish connection with the divine realms
3) Christian writers trained in this Platonist perspective bequeathed this philosophy to the tradition; becomes a technique for attaining union with God
4) A method of union with God through meditation on Scripture (Origen)
5) An intellectual type of mysticism that disparages and excludes women from participation: educationally (because women didn't have access to formal education), materially (because women were associated with the inferior material world) and spiritually (because women had no authority on their own, and authority gained through ecstatic phenomena is inferior to that gained through contemplation)
associated with: Plato as general philosophy, Plotinus (Neoplatonism) as a specific influential philosophy for Christian mystics, the Pseudo-Dionysius for the technique of negation applied to Christianity, Origen for the Christian technique of reading Scripture
Spiritual Senses:
definitions:
1) The idea that there are spiritual senses which correlate to the 5 physical senses
2) The concept that every human has both an inner (spiritual) and an outer (physical) man, with senses for each
significance:
1) spiritual senses are the way one connects to God
2) disparagement of the physical senses
3) key to a correct mystical understanding of Scripture
associated with: source is St. Paul's concept of the inner and outer man, emphasized by Origen, and taken up by most later mystics
Lectio Divina:
definitions: "Divine Reading". Method of reading developed in the monasteries that involves intense concentration upon a small part of the text in order to draw out every possible meaning of it. It can be part of a mystical reading of scripture that attempts to transcends the literal stories of the Bible.
Significance: Intense concentration upon scripture is part of the method for mystical reading . The goal is to absorb oneself in the text to the point of either ecstasy (in many women mystics) and/or mystical insight and communion with God.
associated with: First Origen and then later monastic writers such as Hildegard and Bernard of Clairvaux.
Celestial Hierarchy:
definitions:
1) means to ascend the ladder of contemplation through contemplating intelligences, eventually leading to a realization that they are beyond categorization, leading to the state of "unknowing"
2) sacred orders of angels, divided into three groups: those closest to God, those in authority, and those who reveal God to humans. Parallels with human order: mystics, priests and bishops, those who expound and listen to the divine Word
significance:
1) mystics are higher than priests
2) one can't question priests and bishops
3) the human mind begins with the material and gradually moves to the spiritual realms
4) women have no place in either the divine or human order
associated with: The Pseudo-Dionysius
Minnemystik:
definitions: "Love Mysticism" in Dutch. A type of mysticism that envisions the female Minne (Love) as the most important aspect of God, and imagines the union of God as between two lovers, God (female) and the soul (either masculine or feminine).
Significance: One of the very few Christian mystical techniques that transcends imagining God as a masculine entity. Folowing the conventions of troubador poetry, it also view love as central to God, yet arbitrary and demanding, "free to come and go". Love can be painful as well as joyful.
associated with: Women writers in France, the Low Countries, and the Netherlands in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It also owes its inspiration to the writings of Augustine and then Bernard of Clairvaux, both of whom believed that love was the key to union with God.
Sophia/Sapientia:
definitions:
1) "Wisdom" in Greek
2) In Gnostic thought, Sophia is the last member of the Pleroma of aeons, whose fall resulted in the creation of the material world (and the birth of the Hebrew God). Although restored to the Pleroma, her divine sparks are scattered throughout the material world.
3) In Christian thought, Sophia (Sapientia in Latin) is a female aspect of God.
significance:
1) Gnostic elect are those who have the divine sparks
2) No need for an institutional church
3) Salvation consists in knowledge (gnosis) of the true state of things; returning the divine sparks to the pleroma and the end of the material world
4) Alienation from the material world
5) In orthodox Chrisitianity, a female aspect of divinity; used by some women writers to envision the divine as feminine and as the part of God that connects with humans
associated with: Valentinian gnosticism, Hildegard of Bingen and used by other monastic writers such as Augustine but with no gender connotations
Incarnation:
definitions:
1) the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form
2) In Christianity, the concept that God became a human being (Jesus) who lived and died on earth
significance:
1) Through this act and Christ's eventual death, humankind was redeemed from sin
2) Christ is the bridge between the divine and human realms
3) Humans have a way to relate to God
4) God loved humans enough to become one; hence love is a (if not the) major characteristic of God
5) Makes connection with God possible
associated with: became orthodox doctrine in the 4th century that Christ had two natures, human and divine